The sun rises, a new day just begining. Above the city of Nexus, Obsidian Wings comes to the end of a long journey. Soaring above the City of Black Snow, he contemplates how best to find his mentor in the city below. The summons had mentioned only the deathknights and the new shadowland, a feature that the young Lunar can see cutting across the city's poorer district like a scar.

Below, at the back of a cluttered warehouse, a celestial gateway opens and a Sidereal steps out into the city. While fate was never quite stable in the City of a Thousand Lice, what with the wyld zone and the abundance of supernatural goods and beings that pass through the city, recently fate has been more erratic than ever, aggravated by the addition of a shadowland to the city's geomancy. A Sidereal agent was dispatched to discover the cause little more than a week ago, but nothing has been heard from her since and things have gotten even stranger in the city. Annualar Arrangement has been dispatched to figure out what is going on in the city and restore the city's destiny to a more predictable course.

Farther away, at one of the many gates, an old monk pays his entrance tax on his way into the city. A week ago, the god of Matashi manifested inside his hut during his morning meditation. The god, looking much like a young village boy, had an unusual request for the old man. "I've got important news from the gods of the villages nearby. Not all of the villagers were killed in the raids. Many were taken prisoner, though the other gods could not say where they have been taken. I need you to find Wince and his friends. If they are to be able to do something about what is going on, they must be told."

A hundred miles away, a vicious battle has just concluded. Men and horses lay dead dying all around, their screams and moans quieting the normal sounds of the forest. The Marukani horsemen who survived the battle tend to the wounded, bandaging friend and putting down foe. In a clearing that was not there before, scorched, blackened, and bloody from the fighting, five Exalts stand alone for the moment. Alanadel, between labored breaths, asks the important question. "What now?"